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Looking for an entrepreneur to interview.?

i have a class project and i need an entrepreneur to answer these questions. please help me. thank you very much. 1.What’s your name and what kind of business do you own? 2.Why did you become an entrepreneur? 3.How did you come up with your business? 4.How did you finance your business? 5.Is this your first business? If not, how many businesses do you have? 6.How do you market your products or services? 7.Does social networking play any roll in your business? If so what? 8.What plans that you have to do to expand your business further? 9.Did you find investors for your business? If so, how? 10.How is your business different from others? 11.What are the biggest challenges you face now? 12.What is the formula for becoming a successful entrepreneur? 13.Where do you see the business in say 10 years time? 14.Do you have any suggestions for entrepreneurs who are experiencing challenging times? 15.How has the economy effected your business? Thanks for answering the questions. I appreciate it.

Public Comments

1. 1.What’s your name and what kind of business do you own? My Name is Daniel Alarik, I actually own 3 businesses. The most recent one is called Alarik Arts LLC (Alarikarts.com). This helps small businesses and entrepreneurs get online to sell their products. We make custom designed online stores for them. 2.Why did you become an entrepreneur? I just don't like other people telling me what to do. I love to work hard and build things. 3.How did you come up with your business? Well I have about 15 years of web development experience, but I realized when I wanted to sell online with one of my businesses, the coding was much more complex and completely different then what I was used to. My alternative was to either pay an expensive company thousands of dollars and wait weeks for the results, or just use a 'template' by some other company, which restricted my options in my design. So now, I bridge those 2 gaps. My firm creates custom and professionally designed online shops within 48 hours at a fraction of the cost. So basically, I just found a need, and filled it with my company. 4.How did you finance your business? I strongly believe that you can't work for you self if you owe somebody else. That just means you still working for somebody to pay off that debt. So I just use savings and the money that my firm earns. I keep the overhead on the company very small to keep up growing quickly and reinvest nearly every dime we earn. 5.Is this your first business? If not, how many businesses do you have? No, I have 2 other businesses. This is the most recent one. I have a military pride apparel brand (Gruntstyle.com) and my wife and I invest in real estate (buying and flipping houses and rental properties). 6.How do you market your products or services? Flyers, networking, social networking, and recently for AlarikArts.com, I started a video blog that tells other entrepreneurs about my day-to-day activities. This is to help others out on what to expect when they start a business. You can find it here (http://www.howistartedinbusiness.com). 7.Does social networking play any roll in your business? If so what? Yes, I use facebook, meetup.com, youtube and blogging. I also answer questions on Yahoo Answers and eHow.com to help others and promote my business. 8.What plans that you have to do to expand your business further? I have many plans to expand Alarik Arts.com, one of them is to start a Video Production division, but that'll probably be about 9-12 months away. 9.Did you find investors for your business? If so, how? No investors, I found that if you use investors, you now answer to them, not your self. I want to stay my own boss, that is, except for my wife, she's really my boss. 10.How is your business different from others? Again, we are a bridge between big firm cost and design and the quickness and low cost of those do-it-yourself online stores. So, we'll make a custom design for your business, within 48 hours at a fraction of the cost. So our clients can spend more time on their business, not figuring out their website. 11.What are the biggest challenges you face now? Growth. Getting more customers and clients is always a challenge in any business. When you stop growing as a business, you're tombstone is already being laid. 12.What is the formula for becoming a successful entrepreneur? Smart, hard work. You don't have to be really smart, just willing to learn and work hard. Knowing that you're going to work 16-20 hour days to get your business started, should be ok for you. When you start know that 80% of your time should be spent on selling and marketing, not refining your product. Also, a great mentor always helps you to success. 13.Where do you see the business in say 10 years time? Hopefully passing the 100 Million mark in annual sales. With a great customer relationship and fan base. Multiple divisions that help other entrepreneurs getting started in their businesses. 14.Do you have any suggestions for entrepreneurs who are experiencing challenging times? Get a mentor. Spend more time selling instead of looking for office furniture. 15.How has the economy effected your business? Not much. It just makes you know that if you business can make it now then when times are better, it'll explode into success.